Wild Blue Yonder

An Out-of-Work Gal Considers Her Opportunities

About Me

What began here as an online journal chronicling my progress as I pursued a variety of financial goals has morphed into a blog devoted to the concerns and challenges of the unemployed.

A communicator by profession, I cannot sit on my hands, even while temporarily out of work. What better subject to delve into than one I am personally experiencing, along with 15.4 million other Americans?

Personal finance issues and strategies for stretching a dollar will surely top the list, but I also plan to adopt a more holistic approach by taking on any aspect of the jobless experience that I think will be of interest to readers.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

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Join the February Challenge: Home Cooking

February 1st, 2010 at 05:04 pm

First, I'd like to congratulate everyone who participated in the January "Purge 30 in 30 Days" challenge. There were many of you who went well beyond the basic challenge of de-cluttering your homes, whether by selling unwanted possessions, giving them away or recycling them.

While the January challenge was all about simplifying your life, the February challenge is about reducing your monthly food bill by eating at home as much as possible. While grabbing a pizza on the way home from work can be a convenience (and who doesn't enjoy being waited on at a full service restaurant?), dining out today certainly gives me a case of sticker shock.

And, let's face it, restaurant food is designed to taste good. Perhaps becuase of restaurateurs' desire to have you coming back for more, restaurant food is often laden with hidden salts, fats and sugars, all of which enhance the flavor of food, as well as our waistlines.

The February challenge is very simple: let's see how many days this month you can eat all your meals at home. Give yourself 1 point for each day when you don't purchase any foods or beverages outside the home. (Yup, this includes coffee from Starbucks or a candy bar at the grocery check-out line.)

If you eat at a friend's house, that's okay. You're still eating at (a) home. If you make your lunch at home but eat it at work, give yourself a point (as long as the rest of your meals are homemade, too).

The person who earns the highest score, or a score of 28, since this is February, wins.

20 Responses to “Join the February Challenge: Home Cooking”

I'm in, but I don't think I will be able to win it already coz we are going away to a wedding and it will be a whole weekend away. There will be an unavoidable eating out unfortunately
Can I count each meal separately instead?

Anyway, yesterday (1st of Feb here) breakfast, lunch and dinner was all eaten at home.

I'm in but this will be a really big challenge for me. I hate cooking! But I'm up for the challenge. One point for yesterday and one for today because we have left overs from the weekend. Looking forward to next month's challenge. And thanks for coordinating the 30 day purge. It seemed to motivate a lot of us!

Oh heck, I'm in, even though we're being a bit indulgent these days (living it up before baby comes). Let's see, today I got a candy bar and NT got some pretzels, and AS put her lunch in my bag by accident and had to buy a sandwich out, so no point. Oh, and AS bought a soda Monday. Whoops, no points so far!